Motorola Stockholders to Vote on Google Merger

November 17, 2011 is the date Motorola Mobility stockholders will vote on the company’s acquisition by Google for $12.5 billion, or $40 a share, TechCrunch reported.

Shareholders who held stock on October 11 will get to vote. Since the offer was first made in August for the consumer electronics division of Motorola, the Motorola stock has gone from around $22 a share to $38.

Google Android boss Andy Rubin told AllThingsD that Google would operate Motorola at “arms’ length” and that “the company didn’t buy Motorola for its hardware, but for its patents” confirming the earlier speculation. Rubin went on to say Motorola wouldn’t get any special treatment.

“But even with Rubin’s assurances and with evidence that seems to back up his claims, there are some who aren’t so sure Google can keep Motorola Mobility at arm’s length,” CNET reported.

“Any way (Google) tries to couch this, there’s no doubt Motorola is the most favored player,” Gartenberg said. “If I’m a third-party vendor, I have some real concerns here.”

“There are 18 specific patents Motorola Mobility owns that can help Google battle current litigation. These patents have already been used previously when Motorola Mobility “picked a fight” with Apple, issuing three lawsuits of their own. Those lawsuits targeted more than Apple’s iPhone. It also targeted iPad, AppleTV, and even the MacBook Air. Four of those 18 patents were also used against Research in Motion, resulting in the BlackBerry manufacturer to pay royalties, too,” Craver noted.

It would seem the shareholders will vote for the sale as stock prices would likely fall dramatically if it were turned down.

This week, both LinkedIn and Facebook are beefing up their paid social offerings in different ways, while Google seeks to cut off Adwords revenues for fake news sites. And might Google be favouring desktop over its own AMP in its upcoming mobile-first index?

Here we’ll take a look at the basic things you need to know in regards to search engine optimisation, a discipline that everyone in your organisation should at least be aware of, if not have a decent technical understanding.